There is a desire in the food industry to create visually attractive products to provide the best possible experience for the consumer. One way to enhance the product appearance is by applying patterns onto the surface of the product, made from edible materials such as coatings, chocolate or other edible liquids.
In ice cream manufacturing, it is common practice to enrobe products, such as ice cream products on a stick, using chocolate or other coating materials. These products are typically preferred by consumers who can enjoy ice cream and chocolate simultaneously.
Typically these products get fully enrobed by dipping them into a bath of liquid chocolate, resulting in an attractive coverture. There are also products that are not fully enrobed but covered only partly such as half covered, by dipping them only half way into the liquid chocolate. Reasons to cover a product only partly may be economical or nutritional. Such products then have covered part and an uncovered part, with the border between covered and uncovered part typically being a straight line.
Artisanal ice lollies have long been partially coated by dipping the product into the coating in a tilted orientation. Examples of such products are available from pop-bar™. As a result, the coating covers the product with the borderline between coated and uncoated portions running diagonally relative to the product axis (axis of the stick). Although this may be an attractive solution, this procedure cannot generate a borderline other than straight.
US2002/0068119 A1 and WO 02/082918 describe systems for applying coating onto surfaces of frozen desserts. Application is done by projection rather than by dipping and the procedure generates lines rather than full coating. It is therefore not suitable to cover one part of the product in a closed layer and leave the other part uncovered with a not-straight borderline.
EP1161880A1 discloses a method of applying printing fluids such as chocolate onto objects such as biscuits. The fluid is printed by projecting numerous tiny droplets in a way to create a desired pattern. While this technology can cover surfaces of frozen confections in various designs, it requires a complex set up of printing heads to achieve a continuous coverage around the product.
EP 2793602 discloses a method of decorating a frozen confection by applying a liquid coating material to the surface of the confectionery product and allowing the coating material to flow down along the product. This invention does not provide a solution to partial coating a confectionery product with an improved definition of the coating border of a half or partly dipped product.
There is an interest among ice cream manufacturers to provide products having an attractive look to increase the appeal for the consumer. It is therefore desirable to overcome the limitations in design imposed by classical partial dipping and to enhance the visual appearance of ice cream products which are half dipped. Further, there is also a need to provide such decorations to a high level of accuracy. There is also a need for products having a good nutritional profile obtained by reducing the amount of the coating material which is usually high in fat.